oh goody, a poll...

[lagilman]

Right now, as the new website preps to go live (yes, finally, although probably still slightly buggy, so bear with us) I'm wondering about starting a new project to keep me off the streets and out of trouble, as it were. But only you can tell me how to run it...


[Poll #1195510]

Thaks for your time and honest answers....

Comments

[sleary.livejournal.com]

I checked both the first and last pay boxes, so I thought I should clarify. :) If a short story is published in an online venue or has already been published in a print edition or two, I generally feel like that's your free sample to me, and I am not inclined to pay for it. Likewise first chapters of published or forthcoming novels. You get my money when I buy the dead tree edition.

Larger online projects, however, can get me to pull out the credit card. I'm currently reading and donating to Shadow Unit (http://www.shadowunit.org/) and Saltation (http://korval.com/saltation/).

I'm really not sure where I'd place previously unpublished stories in that spectrum. Probably on the free end out of sheer laziness; my credit card is often on the other side of the house. ;) PayPal is easy, though.

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

Do please please have one of the major online pay systems -- PayPal, Google Checkout something of the like.

[lagilman]

Paypal is the proposed (default) plan, yes. Simplicity is key. I am the very model of a lazy person, and expect the same of my readers. *grin*

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I paid for both of the Lee/Miller Liaden works-in-progress, happily. The chunks per week are just right, long enough to be satisfying, not so long as to be overwhelming.

[vcmw]

I ended up buying an epilogue to a novel I liked a lot through the Amazon shorts program, and really enjoyed getting to read it.

I tend to see previews of not-yet-published works as something I want to read for free, and additions to published works or works not-to-be-print published as things I'm willing to pay for.

[shana.livejournal.com]

What I want to see on a writer's webpage are free samples.

I'm perfectly willing to pay for things I like, but I'm nore likely to give a biggish chunk of money than a bunch of smaller amounts. And if I have to pay before I can read enough to tell that I like it... I won't.

[In your case, I'm reasonably sure I will like your stuff, but I'm likely to do my online reading during slow times at work, and I don't send money until I am at my home computer. The public library is more likely to get hacked.]

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I would like a credit system in which I could pay up front, say $15, and then draw on that credit for as long as it takes to spend it to pay for short stories. I would also like it to be possible to send a check through the mail so that I don't have to pay online (I know. I'm a dinosaur, but I like being one. ;-)) I would probably not pay for a book-length piece, because I prefer a print version.

[lagilman]

the credit system's an interesting idea -- will have to contemplate feasibility...

[ianrandalstrock.livejournal.com]

We (well, a couple of my co-conspirators) built something like that as a spin-off of The Lunar Resources Company. It ran simshost.com (now out of business), and did a pretty darn good job of it. It's a micro-payment system in which the user deposits money up front, and then uses that bank account to make micro-purchases (like 5-50 cents); kind of the same idea as E-Z Pass, but for vastly smaller amounts of money.

If you (or anyone else) is interested in getting hold of that software, I can provide a contact address when I get home and access to my address book.

[lagilman]

Please, yes...

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I just checked out the new site. I didn't know you edited Wen Spencer. I loved Tinker.

[lagilman]

Alas, TINKER was a Baen title, not Roc -- I had her earlier series...

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

Question #1
All of the above...

Question #2
I very strongly dislike going on-line payment, the Internet is an escaped lab experiment, not something designed to have any intrinsic resistance/defenses again/hardening against idiots, thieves, robbers, fraudsters, incompetence, the fumble-fingered, etc., and not something I trust as a communications medium for "secure" transactions. I contributed to Fledging and Saltation in person with money, not via e-commerce.

#3
I loathe PDF.
Reading on-line versus off, mostly I read on-line rather than offline.
.txt has a few issues, there are at least four different formats for it, regarding like like how to indicate an end of line (Unix and its clones, IBM PC descendants and clone relatives, and Macintoshes each do it different, and I thing there's at least one -other- format kicking around that has a .txt extension), and has formatting limitations otherwise. Probably HTML is the one I regard as stinking least of the commonly extant formats.